It was such a great talk.
Hello everybody! Today is the most wonderful day! I hope everyone saw how beautiful the mountains were today and how blessed we are that God gave them to us.
Today could seriously not be MORE perfect. I get to talk with one of my biggest role models catherine horsley, She helped me all throughout high school and helped me grow to be more christlike. I seriously cannot describe the gratitude I have for her. She was more than a young womens leader. She was one of my best friends.
Today we also get to sing one of my favorite songs. It combines “as sisters in zion” and “the armies of helaman” Almost every time I hear this song I cry. The power coming from the youth is like none other. You can hear their testimonies shine through the lyrics as they declare their dedication to Christ.
i have been a missionary for the church of jesus Christ of latter day saints for an entire week now. It feels like I’ve learned SO much.
The biggest lesson I’ve taken from home Mtc, is that no matter how many times you tell your brothers that its bad karma to hit and beat on a servant of the lord, they just don’t get it. The second thing I’ve learned is that as a servant of the lord I shouldn’t fight back.
Although, David fought back when Goliath was beating on everybody so maybe that’s a sign. In fact if you look at my brother andrew he’s got two black eyes…I’m not saying where they came from, But I will say that I clearly have the power of the lord on my side.
I always knew I wanted to serve a mission. When I opened up my call to Newport Beach, California, I instantly knew that this was the mission for me. I had been to newport many times throughout my youth. The temple there was always one of my favorite parts of our trips, so reading my call was like seeing all the puzzle pieces come together and I’ve been excited ever since.
To be honest I’ve also felt really weak, scared, and nervous. I knew that I would do well on the mission but I also knew that I was leaving behind a lot. I’d be leaving lots of family. While I’m gone new cousins will be born, baptisms will happen, my brother calvin will have a successful senior year and graduate, everett will have gotten his license (and since i’ll be gone, i’m warning everyone now to steer clear of him on the roads) and ofc andrew and nate will have grown so much before I get back. (I keep telling Andrew that this is my last week of being taller than him) my poor mother will have no girls around the house once again and this time I can’t come home from college during the weekends to comfort her from the shenanigans my brothers get up to. And my dad? I think I’ll miss him most of all. Who’s gonna fuel and justify my doctor pepper addiction? Additionally, I’m leaving behind friends, my pets, time to be working at school, my job, other potential adventures, the list could go on and on
So that begs the question, Why am I leaving to spend 18 months out in california?
pause
- Brothers and sisters, The doctrine of Jesus Christ has blessed my life numerous times throughout my youth. There are people in California that need that just as much as I have needed it.
In Alma 26:1-4, it states (split up between each verse and summarize it)
And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?
2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
4 Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God.
You can see what joy he takes from bringing others into the light of God, He truly and genuinely rejoices.
Brothers and sisters, Think of a time in your life when you were in a dark dark corner. Who helped you out of that? Who showed you a new perspective or a new light?
On the contrast, When have you been able to help others out of a dark place? Did you bring them to God?
I get the opportunity to go out to California and show others what the doctrine of Christ has done for me and I get to help show them what it can do for them.
Brother braithwaite asked me to speak about the doctrine of Christ, how it has brought me joy and happiness, and how it can bring you joy and happiness.
It seemed simple at first, But then I realized
what more I could teach You guys. All of you have taught me the doctrine of Christ at some point in my life. All of you are the reason I’m standing here today testifying of Christ’s power. What more could I teach YOU?
I figured the best way I could thank you all for teaching me this wonderful doctrine is to show you how it has blessed my life.
The doctrine of Christ is described as faith in jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and finally enduring to the end.
These are the things we have been taught since we were little kids in primary, but they are some of the strongest bricks you can build in your foundation of the gospel.
The first one is faith.
I was talking with my mom the other day when she said : faith is believing in something, even when it seems hard to comprehend and then choosing to act on it.
I think my mom is exactly right.
If you know me, you know that I love the field of psychology. I love learning about how heavenly fathers created our minds to work. Studying psychology the past year and a half has brought me close to God in a way I never imagined.
This past semester at BYU I took Psychology 210: History of psychology. Throughout the course we talked about different philosophers and how their ideas brought different psychology metaphysics into existence.
I remember a lot of the philosophers main goal was to figure out how to live the best life. Most of them did not believe in agency. They believed we were simply dealt certain cards. Some philosophers approached achieving the “best life” by trying to gain the most pleasure, others approached this idea by trying to avoid the most pain. But one particular man caught my interest in this class.
William James
If you know anything about the science of psychology it is a well known fact that he is considered the founder of psychology. In fact he wrote the first textbook.
In this history class we learned a little bit more about his life. William James was educated by tutors and private schooling. He studied painting and science in europe. And he Trained as a physician at Harvard medical school.
Like many scientists he was hardcore deterministic meaning that he didn’t believe in free will. He believed that everything about our life was predetermined.
He soon realized that if he believed this, then life would lose all meaning. Our choices would hold no value. In our psychology class we learned to call this nihilism.
William James became so depressed and distraught by this thought that he considered suicide. Under the deterministic belief, If nothing he could do in his life mattered, then what was the point.
He described his depression as a “crisis of meaning” caused by his scientific studies.
As he dealt with this depression, he pondered and thought about his viewpoints and whether or not they were doing good for his life or not.
As a scientist, He decided that he was going to start a little experiment on himself.
For one year straight, he would live under the idea of free will and agency. Even though he couldn’t comprehend it, he would live his life as if determinism wasn’t real and the choices he made were truly his. After one year he would re-evaluate his life and see what has changed.
Can you guess what happened? He realized that living his life under free will made it so much better. So how could he not believe in free will?
William james is known to have believed that the “first act of free will is believing in free will”
He later coined the term “Jamesian Pragmatism” which meant that the truth of something is in how well it works, or in other words does it make a good difference in your life?
As we were learning about william james in my class, I realized that his story seemed like a story of faith. At first he couldn’t comprehend what he had to do in order to fix his life, But he did it anyway. After a year, he saw and came to know how much the knowledge of free will blessed his life.
BEAR TESTIMONY ON FAITH
-idk a lot of things but I do have faith in a lot of things
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The second part to the doctrine of Christ is repentance.
A while ago I went on a big roadtrip with my family through southern utah. One of the things we did was hike the famous utah arch. It was beautiful.
A couple months after that I went on my annual moab trip with my girlfriends where we got to repel, canyoneer, hottub, and hike. That year we had decided to hike to the Utah arch at night so we could see all the beautiful stars. I had remembered that I had hiked it just a couple months before and I was excited to show my friends that I knew the way.
Confidently and with a little too much pride in my heart I lead the way. I swore I knew where I was going. But as we got further along, the path seemed to have disappeared and the way was not clear anymore. It was dark and my friends kept telling me they didn’t think I was going the right way. I was so upset and embarrassed that I had led my friends off the path.
They told me we could say a prayer to hopefully put us back on track, and so we did. Soon we figured our way back to the path and eventually got to the arch. We saw so many beautiful stars that night.
In my stubbornness, I had failed to come to terms with the fact that I was not where I should be. In fact I was still quite upset even when we eventually got to the arch. Now I look back at this story and laugh
If I had just humbled myself a little bit, I could’ve accepted my friend’s request to stop and reevaluate where we were BEFORE we got as lost as we did.
This story perfectly parallels the repentance process. Sometimes we get off the path. Sometimes we try to justify our actions and delay our repentance process. But the sooner we get back on the path, the better off we are. Heavenly Father loves you. He wants what’s best for you. He wants you to get back on the path.
In Mosiah 4:3 it says
“And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.”
Notice how their willingness to repent was based on their faith in Jesus Christ. These aspects of the doctrine of Christ build off of each other. Its a pattern we see continue to see as we look at the other parts to the doctrine of christ
The third part of the doctrine of Christ is Baptism
I think most of us can recall our own baptism. It was a day that I remember so clearly. After I emerged from the water I had the distinct feeling of being as light as a feather.
We are baptised for a remission of our sins, meaning our sins will be taken away. We are making a covenant with God, saying that we promise to always remember him, serve him, and obey his commandments.
In john 3:5 it says
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” —John 3:5
Baptism is something we need to do in order to return to God again because it cleanses us from our sins.
Does it mean that we never sin again after our baptism? No
It means that we promise to always remember Christ. Thats why we take the sacrament every. Single. Week. To renew that covenant. We all mess up. But we should be trying to keep our eyes layed upon christ.
The church website says it “signifies the end of your old way of life and birth to a life committed to Christ’s values”
Isn’t that beautiful. I like the word committed there. I think it shows that even when we get off the path, we are committed to return back to it someway or another
It builds off of repentance which we just talked about. Once again we see that the aspects of the doctrine of Jesus Christ build off of each other.
The fourth aspect is the gift of the Holy Ghost
I have talked about the holy ghost so much this week in Home MTC because he is described as the perfect companion.
The Holy Ghost has also been a good friend of mine
I’ve done my best to keep him by my side during high school
If you think about it, isn’t it so great that we can have someone with us all the time to guide us throughout life?
I Testify that I have felt the spirit in my life.
But there are times where I am left waiting to feel the spirit and I don’t get it in the way I want. In these cases I think it’s important to go back to faith. But there are things we can do to increase our feeling of the holy ghost
How can we increase feeling the Holy Ghost in our lives?
Pray for the spirit to be with you and Pray to feel your heavenly fathers love. Be in situations where the holy ghost can reside. Read your scriptures, go to the temple, be with friends and family that uplift you.
Most importantly Be patient. There is a talk that I love called Be still and know that I am God
Sometimes in those dark moments where it feels impossible to connect with heaven. Be still. And trust he is there anyways .
Brothers and sisters sometimes it takes patience and faith. But I know heavenly father loves you and wants you to feel his love. The spirit will come as you faithfully reach out and place yourself where he can come.
The last aspect of the doctrine of Christ is to endure to the end.
This is one of the most important things that I think we can do.
It is no secret that life is hard. We all have our own trials and challenges that we have to get through.
Don’t give up on Jesus Christ because he will NEVER give up on you.
I’d like to share a story of a dear pioneer ancestor of mine. Tamson Eagan. I constantly go back to her story in times where it seems like there is no point to keep going in whatever hard work I am doing at the time. This is written in her family history profile.
At the head or summit before entering the canyon, Major Egan was called to assist in some repairs that were necessary on Heber C. Kimball’s wagon, which made it necessary for Tamson to drive the team until he should catch up,
So they were crossing the plains and her husband had to stay behind and help with repairs while she lead others through the plains until he could catch up again
She had two yoke of oxen and a yoke of cows which she drove down the canyon. It was said that she missed more stumps and rocks than any other driver. She crossed the winding stream twenty seven times. It was humorously reported that someone ahead would holler out to her to tease, “Here is another creek, Mrs. Egan.” She being tired and weary would holler back: “Damn the creeks.”
But she just kept going.
And like the creeks she crossed in those last moments of her journey west, no matter the obstacles that stood in her way, no matter how many times she was called to cross travail again, she moved forward. Damn all that stood in her way, she would not be dissuaded from the call the Lord had given her. She was determined to be numbered among the Saints. She was determined to be a part of the Lord’s restored gospel. And ever onward she went.
Life is hard no doubt. We all have different trials that we have to figure out and get through. But when all seems lost remember: Dang the creeks and keep moving forward.
President Nelson said “ Joy has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives”
Focus on Jesus Christ
You have the best person by your side to help you through it. Turn to Jesus Christ in every affliction and he will give you strength.
Talk about the strength heavenly father has given me this week at home mtc.
Bear testimony on the aspects of the doctrine of jesus Christ.
Don’t forget to talk about how it has made me happy and rejoiceful
Dont forget to promise blessings upon others
-”there is absolutely nothing in this world that will provide more comfort and happiness than a testimony of the truth” -Thomas S Monson
-God Loves you. Weather or not you know that or fully understand that does not change the fact that he loves you.
Testimony specifically to my brothers.
This is the church of joy. Not because it’s easy and not because the people are perfect, but because it’s worth it.